College Basketball

The Northern State women's basketball team fell to seventh place in the NCAA Central Region basketball rankings this past week. The Wolves, who were ranked fifth a week ago, lost a home game to Minnesota-Crookston last weekend and are currently 14-6 on the season. Fort Lewis of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference continues to hold down the top spot in the rankings followed in order by Metro State, Wayne State, Colorado Christian, Concordia-St. Paul, Augustana, Northern State, Winona State, Mesa State and CSU-Pueblo.

Coming off a season in which both the South Dakota State University men's and women's basketball teams won Summit League titles and qualified for the NCAA Tournament, season tickets for the 2012-13 campaign are now on sale. Season tickets start at $225 per seat and provide reserved seating for all men's and women's regular-season home games at Frost Arena in Brookings. All season ticket orders require a minimum donation to the Jackrabbit Club starting at $50 per seat. The SDSU men averaged 3,320 fans per home game at Frost Arena last season.

Kelsey Little of Castlewood and Rebecca Olsson of Vasteras, Sweden, will play women's basketball for Northern State this fall. Both of these perimeter players are very good athletes with excellent foot speed, NSU coach Curt Fredrickson said. They will add a great deal of depth to our guard and forward positions. Little is a 5-foot-9 all-conference guard-forward who averaged 16 points, 10 rebounds and four assists for Castlewood last winter as a senior. She made 32 percent of her three point field-goal attempts.

Northern State turned a 12-point halftime deficit into a 10-point win on Friday. The Wolves came-from-behind to defeat the University of Mary 81-71 in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference men's college basketball game. It was the first time the Wolves have defeated the Marauders in three years. “Mary is well coached,” Northern State coach Paul Sather said. “First time we have beaten them since I have been here. We played really good in that second half.” The Wolves were down 39-27 at the break and got down by as much as 13 points early in the second half.

Presentation College got scoring contributions from all 16 players to see the court, and the result was a 101-39 non-conference victory over Oglala Lakota College Wednesday night at the Strode Center. "I think we had them overmatched in terms of sheer numbers," said Saints' head coach Jeremy Reigle. "But they had some good players. " The Saints outdid the Bravehearts in depth alone, rotating 16 players through the line-up to Oglala's five. "It was an opportunity for us to get better, get a lot of guys playing time that don't usually play," said Reigle, adding that the extra minutes of court time could be a big boost to those players.

Brookings 5-foot-10 senior Tanner Odegaard will play men's basketball for Augustana this fall. Odegaard averaged 14.8 points per game and shot 40 percent from three-point range to help the Bobcats finish fifth in hte State AA this winter.

South Dakota School of Mines senior basketball player Nate Jacobson led his team to a win that was a milestone for the Hardrockers' coach. Mines coach Jason Henry got his 100th win at the school when his Hardrockers defeated Minot State 88-72 this weekend. Jacobson, the older brother of Northern State sophomore quarterback Jared Jacobson, scored 27. The Jacobsons are former standouts for St. Thomas More High School in Rapid City. Mines (14-11) now will face rival Black Hills State (9-13)

The South Dakota State men's basketball team will be featured this weekend as part of the ESPN Sears Bracketbusters schedule. The Jacks will take on Buffalo at Frost Arena in Brookings at noon Saturday on ESPNU. ESPN has a variety of games scheduled for this weekend as part its Bracketbusters coverage, games that will help to shape the future brackets of the annual NCAA Division I tournament in March. Also, the SDSU women's game against North Dakota State at Frost Arena on Saturday has been moved to 3 p.m.

Presentation College was overpowered by Minot State 83-63 on Sunday in a non-conference men's basketball game. Samuel Johnson powered Minot State with 21 points and nine rebounds. Thomas Korf and E.J. Williams added 17 and 15 points respectively. Quincy Davis paced Presentation College with 16 points. Chaz Haymond came off the bench to score 11 points for the Saints. PC made eight three-pointers on the night. Davis had three three-pointers for the Saints. Presentation College will play at the MBI Big Four tournament in Chicago, Ill., this Friday and Saturday.

SPEARFISH - Northern State got a non-freshman-like performance from freshman Paige Waytashek, who scored 24 points to spark the Wolves to a 77-67 win over Black Hills State Saturday evening in non-conference women's basketball. Waytashek drilled 7 of 14 three-point attempts in the performance and led a balanced scoring attack for a Wolves squad that had to withstand a second-half rally for the second straight night. “She didn't look like a freshman tonight,” said NSU head coach Curt Fredrickson of Waytashek's performance.

Presentation College saw its five-point halftime lead disappear as the University of Mary defeated the Saints 75-61 on Saturday in a non-conference men's basketball game. The Saints by as much as nine points in the first half and drilled four three-pointers through the first 20 minutes. The NCAA Division II Marauders took control in the second half. Mary out-scored PC 46-27 in the second half en route to the win. Jalen Jaspers powered the Marauders with 18 points and seven rebounds.

An opportunistic Presentation team fell victim to an even more opportunistic College of Saint Mary squad in the second half Saturday afternoon in non-conference women's basketball. The result was an 81-66 victory for the 23rd-ranked College of Saint Mary Flames. The Saints gave CSM all it could handle in the first half. Presentation badgered the Flames into eight turnovers and shot the ball at a 42.4 percent clip in the half, answering every bucket the Flames put up. “We played a really good first half,” said Presentation head coach Eric Nelson.

RAPID CITY - Northern State women's basketball opened its season on a 14-0 run and never looked back. The Wolves used the opening run to jump-start a 51-35 victory over South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Friday night in non-conference action. Senior Allison Kusler sparked the first half run, scoring all nine of her points in the first stanza on a trio of 3-point buckets. At least two of those shots came with time winding down on the shot clock. “Obviously, we played pretty well in the first half,” said NSU head coach Curt Fredrickson.

Presentation College got scoring contributions from all 16 players to see the court, and the result was a 101-39 non-conference victory over Oglala Lakota College Wednesday night at the Strode Center. "I think we had them overmatched in terms of sheer numbers," said Saints' head coach Jeremy Reigle. "But they had some good players. " The Saints outdid the Bravehearts in depth alone, rotating 16 players through the line-up to Oglala's five. "It was an opportunity for us to get better, get a lot of guys playing time that don't usually play," said Reigle, adding that the extra minutes of court time could be a big boost to those players.

Presentation College used its depth to a 105-40 win over Oglala Lakota College Wednesday night in Aberdeen. The Saints (2-4) used 11 players and they all scored. Meanwhile, nothing much went right for the Bravehearts from the South Dakota college in Kyle except the solid effort it got from its five players. Oglala (0-5) started the game with six players, but one got hurt in the first half. They also had some foul problems. Plus, they showed up only about a half hour before tip-off after a long trip across the state.

SIOUX FALLS -- Northern State dropped a tough 66-65 season-opening decision against Central Missouri on Saturday at the Sanford Pentagon Tip-Off Classic. The Wolves were outscored 7-2 in the final three minutes and Seth Bachand's layup in the waning moments was blocked to help preserve the win for the Mules. “We had an opportunity to seal it late and at the end of the day, they made the plays down the stretch and we didn't,” Northern State coach Paul Sather said. “We made some plays, but they made more of them.” Bachand led Northern with 16 points.